Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 1441: The Hard Talk

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“After sunset, he and the Twelve were sitting around the table. During the meal, he said, “I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators.”

Most of us avoid and dislike having to have a hard talk with someone.  It’s uncomfortable and we will do what we have to do to not have the conversation. But, when we do have these hard talks it is then that most good actions happen.  Many times people lose their jobs because no one would sit down with them and have the hard talk about their performance or behavior.  When they are fired they are surprised and will ask, “Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?”  They are right and we owe it to others to have the hard talks.  When we don’t we are not really telling the full truth to someone and we are potentially robbing from them a way to improve.  The best organizations are those where the culture supports the hard talk and people can expect to be told the unvarnished truth.

It must have been hard for the Disciples to hear what Jesus told them at the Last Supper.  He didn’t gloss over the truth and He didn’t pull any punches with letting them know what was going to happen next.  We don’t have an account of all of the reactions in the room, but I am sure that there were those who wanted to put their fingers in their ears and hum to themselves so they didn’t have to hear what Jesus was telling them. We have to be able to have the hard talks and we have to be willing to hear the hard talk when it is directed to us.  Jesus never said any of this was going to be easy.  He always told us that the way to Him would be hard in giving up ourselves to Him.  But once we do, all the hard talk becomes just more of how He is shaping us to be ready to be with Him.  Holding this close as a promise is a great way to go into this weekend!

Reference: Matthew 26: 20-21 (The Message Version)